Schools

USS Thresher Remembered At Mitchell College

The loss of a submarine with cutting-edge technology was a tragedy not only for the family of those lost, but for the nation as a whole.

By Dirk Langeveld; posted by Cassandra Day.

Gathered on a hillside overlooking the Thames River, students and faculty of Mitchell College paid tribute to those lost on the USS Thresher 50 years ago on Wednesday. 

The brief service included remarks from Mitchell College President Mary Ellen Jukoski as well as Navy personnel. The event grew out of an alumnus contacting the college to share his memories of the memorial held on campus after the nuclear submarine went down on April 10, 1963. 

The names of the 129 aboard the Thresher were read along with a tolling of the bell from the submarine USS Hardhead. A Coast Guard boat laid a wreath in the river. 

Capt. Bruce Derenski of Navy Submarine Group Two, located at Sub Base New London in Groton, was the keynote speaker at the morning event. Derenski said he thought it was fitting that a memorial would take place at the college, saying it was a fitting way for the two sites separated by the river to be united. 

“It is my sincere hope that by sharing a powerful story with you, you will know a little more about my world, and by being here I will know a little more about your world,” said Derenski. 

Derenski outlined the fateful trip of the Thresher, a vessel that featured several state of the line technologies and weapons and had just completed sea trials and an overhaul at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Me. The submarine was conducting a deep dive test off the coast of Cape Cod when the accompanying ship Skylark began to receive intermittent communications indicating trouble and an emergency attempt to bring theThresher to the surface. 

“You can imagine the tension, the helpless feeling that something had gone wrong aboard Thresher and there was no way to help her,” said Derenski. 

The submarine fell below its maximum depth, and the sonar aboard Skylark picked up the sounds of the compartments giving way under the weight of the water. Then there was silence. All sailors and civilian technicians aboard Thresher died in the worst submarine disaster in United States history.

Derenski said the loss was a tragedy not only for the family of those lost, but for the nation as a whole. A submarine with cutting edge technology had been lost not to enemy action, but to human error. 

“It was a hard blow to the nation’s mood in a time when confidence and optimism were sorely needed,” he said.

An inquiry determined that a series of errors had led to flooding and a loss of power, with the submarine unable to blow its ballast tanks quickly enough to return to the surface. The disaster led to the Navy’s “SubSafe” program as well as efforts to correct problems that led to the Thresher’s sinking. 

Derenski said that since the improvements, no submarines have been lost due to problems like the ones that downed theThresher. He said the memorial ceremonies are meant to honor the men lost on the submarine and to pay tribute to their role in preventing other disasters. 

“We do not turn our back on that distant patch of ocean, and we do not forget what we learned,” said Derenski.


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